Seinfeld's Kramer freaking loses it!

[dixiehack]

The presser was a joke. All of a sudden Rodriguez sounded like a guy pissed off that someone came and stuck their deck in his mashed potatoes. Comedians strike a nerve: since the beginning of time the punchlines of jokes have been at the expense of whites, blacks, Mexicans, homosexuals ... everyone. We all laugh. Now what? I'm tempted to believe Richards was trying a shtick way out there on the ledge and he just couldn't reclaim balance before falling off. I don't see his rant as a sign he's racist. It'll be interesting to see the Chris Rock's and Martin Lawrence's of the stand-up world telling vulgar and/or race-related jokes that involve whites, blacks, lesbians, whatnot. It just seems like it's OK for a comedian to make really derogatory (but funny) jokes that make people laugh yet doesn't make said joke-teller a racist, because we're all laughing.

Paul Rodriguez has been an afterthought for nearly a decade and shouldn't comment at all. If he's all bent out of shape, then George Lopez, Mencia, the late Richard Pryor, Rock, and every comedian should never, ever talk or joke about race, sex, or people again. Or better yet, Rodriguez can blame Lenny Bruce for pushing the envelope to openly talk and joke about our differences.

What makes this a topic was that it wasn't part of the routine or a segue into a joke. The two hecklers, from how I read it, sounded serious when they interrupted him and said that he wasn't funny. Richards snapped and ranted. He took what they said personally and went off. In light of what has taken place, this may taint his career for a while, since our society has become highly sensitive about everything, which ironically, we can laugh about like Terrier pointed out.

I'm channeling Whitlock here, but he has pointed out in the past that there has been a double standard in who says what. If Paul Rodriguez or D.L. Hughley would have went off like that, not much would be said, because they know what it's like to be a minority. This was a bad time at a bad place for Richards to be in for that to happen.

He doesn't need anyone to tell him. He already knows that.

Not similar in anyway, but it does have some overtones was the topic we discussed on whether or not to go to Babs' concert. If I want to hear her sing, then I expect her not to add her personal political diatribe. The 180 to that is I get what I paid for and in the words of Bobby Knight, "sit back and enjoy it."

The hecklers expected something better than what they got. They paid for it and if it wasn't to their liking, get up and leave. But they demanded better entertainment and told him what they thought. In an ironic sort of way, they got their monies worth.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!

No matter how much you want to believe otherwise, there is such a thing as Right and Wrong. Calling black people "nugget" in rapid-fire succession because they heckled you at work is WRONG. I can't believe that someone needs to point that out in the 21st century, but there you go.

And why in God's name would you be jealous of someone like Chris Rock because they "can" use that word and you can't. Is your life not complete because you can't call black people "nugget?" Don't worry about anyone else. Why would you want that poison to enter your mind and kill your soul? Do you get pissed because the warning tag says you can't use a hair dryer in the tub?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Cut Paul Rodriguez some slack. He wasn't there to rip Michael Richards, he was there (a) to help the club owner address the media and (b) because he was on the bill with Michael Richards that night, and put it in some perspective. If you watched the news conference, he spent most of the time getting ripped by activists who were there because he wasn't being harsh enough on Richards. His comments were pretty honest -- he said he heard the tirade start and thought that it better be leading up to a heck of a punch line.. but it wasn't leading anywhere. It was just a big dumb offensive diatribe.

One of the more interesting parts to me was the people demanding that the club ban the use of the word "nugget" and they essentially made the point that it's kind of hard when the primary people who've used the word there are Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, and other prominent Black comics.

And Daemon, I think your point is correct. I think Richards was pissed off and wanted to get back at the hecklers so he went for the nuclear option. Watching that video, I think it took him about 30 seconds to realize what a grave and stupid mistake he made.

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

I'm sure he will blame the whole rant on alcohol and will be in rehab by the end of the week...

After all, nobody is ever accountable for their actions these days...

I'm feeling counseling for anger issues. Book it. He used the term "rage" about three times in his apology on the Late Show, setting himself up for dealing with his uncontrollable emotions.

 

[ifilus]

Rodriguez is an ass. Why did he feel compelled to refer to Richards as a "a man of Jewish faith"? That was unnecessary, irrelevant and politically incorrect. (Especially since, from I've read subsequently, Richards isn't even a Jew).

 

[Alma]

That was awful. Ugh, terrible. If his career is dead, so be it. That's just not a comedic choice you make under any circumstances, and what Hurricane Katrina has to do with it...

I've been pouring through African-American literature - from the slave narratives to present - for a year or so, and the depth of the identity crisis white people put into blacks is deeper than I thought. Surely black Americans shoulder some of that responsibility, but slavery, and the racist oppression that followed, bring us to our present situation and white Americans have to stop thinking everything should be all right by now, and start working on solutions that don't merely say "ole" to the current, prevailing and self-destructive black culture.

 

[Ledbetter]

There was a Sinbad sighting today on CNN. He is, apparently, against the use of the word by anyone.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I thought he was just channeling Kramer, and his rant was in character.
It's funny...when Chris Rock goes off about white people or Sasha Baron Cohen gets misoygenist, we usually laugh.

Yeah. Funny how that works. They make actually jokes that are funny or create outrageous situations that people find funny. They don't go ape shirt and start shouting the word "nugget" over and over again for no reason.

Exactly. If you watch the video, I don't know how you can come away with the impression that this was part of his act or even a joke gone awry. There's a big difference between making jokes about the differences between races and belittling a person by calling him a n----- repeatedly. Inexcusable.

That said, I wouldn't label Richards a racist either. What he did was instinct.

Think about it: for somebody like Richards, whose comedy is his life, his essence, his being, the worst emotional pain one can inflict on him is to make of his comedy. And we've all been there: when you feel insulted, offended, your first instinct is to retalliate, to cut to the core of that other party.

The hecklers cut to the core of Richards' soul as a comedian.
Richards cut to the core of the hecklers' soul as black men.

I won't believe that Richards hates all black people any more than I'll believe the hecklers hate all comedians.

The difference: comedians don't have a couple hundred years of oppression still fresh in their mind.

What Richards did was inexcusable, and I'm sure he realizes that.

Does that make sense?

Ever see the movie "Do the Right Thing?" If not, go rent it...now. Buy it at Wlat Mart if the local Blockbuster is closed. Great ended scenes where Danny Aiello, who has said the entire movie that he has no problem with black people, loses his temper and starts calling some punks who won't leave his pizza shop this very same word. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I won't spoil the ending for you.

Lee's message is pretty simple: people's true colors come out when they lose their tempers. Lord knows it's happened to me and I have a couple of ex-girlfriends that, years later, refuse to speak to me because of the things I said when I lost my temper.

If he wanted to take a dig at them all he had to do was reply was, "yeah, I'm not funny and you'e sitting here putting yourself through it. You could leave, you could go take a pish, you could go smoke and cigarette and come back, yet you sit here, posessed by my lack of talent. How smart does that make YOU?"

 

[Songbird]

I hear you on the girlfriends becoming exgirlfriends because of tempers erupted; the product of growing up in a house where you had to yell and scream with venom.

 

[Songbird]

That was tough to watch (Letterman). Lotta anger rages through his heart and soul.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

And Richards goes onto Letterman's show via satellite and apologizes to his mostly white audience. Well, glad that's taken care of.

 

[Almost_Famous]

I thought he just bombed on Letterman.

 

[Songbird]

The crowd laughing every so often early in the "sorry" made him look like he wanted to gauge out someone's eyes and skullfork them.